The indian air force on 28 August 2007 initiated a program MRCA or Multi role combat aircraft to procure a total of 126 fighter aircrafts at a cost of 55,000 crore rupees or $7.7 billion and the programme was to fulfill the gap between the Lighter fighter i the indian air force i.e the LCA Tejas and the heavyweight fighter SU 30 MKI
The contest featured 6 fighters from all around the world and they are as follows American F 18 and F21 which was the upgraded variant of the american F 16 which is also used by Pakistan , French Rafale , European union's Eurofighter Typhoon , Russian Mig 35 and t5he swedish SAAB Gripen
. On 27 April 2011 after a rigorous tech evaluation by the Indian air force the Eurofighter Typhoon and the French Rafale where selected but since both the aircrafts where of the western origin , They had very high cost and the budget exceeded the allotted fund for the programme . And at the same time the Indian air force had very less aerial platform to deploy it nuclear weapons and the only aircraft i the indian air force which are able to do the nuclear delivery are the mirages and the jaguars but they are aging very quickly as they have completed around 70% of their life cycle. And so the indian government decided to scrap the MRCA and instead of 126 aircraft just 36 Rafale aircrafts where brought from the french DASSAULT
But still after buying the 36 Aircrafts from france the Indian Air Force was not happy as the 36 aircrafts can not full fill the requirements of the Indian Air Force
And so after the order of 36 Rafales the Indian Air Force floated a RFI for MMRCA 2.0 which was MEDIUM MULTI ROLE FIGHTER AIRCRAFT 2.0 to buy 114 fighter aircrafts from a foreign country
But here is the same case of cost that if the IAF buys the western fighters which are far far ahead of the Russian fighters in all aspects then again the Indian Air Force would have to pay a lot then he entire defence budget of the IAF for the purchases of aircrafts their weapons , their electronics and also spares and extra engines of the aircraft and other parts of the fighters and too the indian air force would have to set up an entire new infrastructure for the repair and overhaul of the western fighters
WHAT CAN THE IAF DO
Just like the IAF the Egyptian air Force also purchased 24 Rafale fighters from France and recently the Egyptian air force have had placed an repeat order for 30 Rafale aircrafts and it costed the Egyptian Air Force just $ 4.5 billion for 30 aircrafts as compared to the 5.5 billion for 24 in the earlier deal
So if the IAF decides to go with Additional 36 Rafales order it would cost them very less as compared to the earlier $ 8 billion for 36 aircrafts and with this the IAF would have a total of 72 aircrafts which would be obviously less then the original 114 aircrafts in MMRCA 2.0 but in the terms of quality they would be at a very high level
The CDS ( Chief Of Defence Staff ) Bipin Rawat also suggested that if the IAF wants to go with the western fighters then the IAF should place orders in a staggered manner so that the IAF would be able to buy the fighters in a less bill and at the same time the IAF would be able to buy the latest versions of the aircrafts
WHAT IS THE IAF DOING
The Indian air force is currently discussing the possibilities of buying the Rafales in a different different batches of 36 aircrafts each and such 3 to 4 batches will be purchased so as to increase the saudron strength of the IAF and if the air force goes in such a manner the IAF would be able to buy many aircrafts and would be able to buy the latest versions of the aircrafts also
Comments